After years of talking about it, Denver Public Schools is opening a middle school at Manual High School.
It’s part of the latest plan to improve the struggling high school that over the past 15 years went through in a cycle of hope and disappointment. Recently, demographic added to change.
To give Manual a break, the new middle school will open next fall at another building, the Smiley campus, for one year.
The middle school will move into Manual in the fall of 2017.
“I think the future of Manual is really important, but I have had this feeling that the kids within Manual have been victims to change, the transition that’s always happening here, and what’s going on, and the controversy and the next plans,” said Nick Dawkins, the high school’s new principal. “I have a keen sense that our community needs the time to digest what’s coming. They need the time to work on the academics.”
Manual, one of the district’s lowest performing high schools, is seeing declining enrollment and stagnant, low academic performance.
The high school hasn’t had a feeder middle school in years. Having a middle school might boost enrollment, officials say. The recent also created the need.
The middle school will be based on the popular McAuliffe International School in north Park Hill.
Like McAuliffe International, the McAuliffe Middle School at Manual will be an International Baccalaureate school that provides choice in language, arts and other electives.
Jessica Long, chosen to be principal of the new middle school, said the plan is for students to get “a chance to experience as much as they can and be exposed to as many opportunities as they can.”
To avoid repeating failed reforms that left Manual split into three schools within the same building, school leaders are working on aligning the middle school with Manual.
“We want one set of opportunities for all of our kids,” Dawkins said.
The middle school will adopt Manual’s school colors and values, and students will be exposed to Manual’s history, which dates more than 100 years.
But the most significant alignment, Long said, is changing the number of students prepared for high school.
Currently, about 80 percent of Manual’s students enter behind grade level, Dawkins said.
On this spring’s state tests, about 11 percent of ninth-graders met or exceeded expectations on English tests. Districtwide, about 34 percent of ninth-graders did.
To improve academics, the middle school will focus on small-group instruction and support for English learners.
The Denver school board Thursday approved the school’s placement and a renewal proposal for Manual’s innovation status. The status, under state law, provides autonomy and flexibility from laws, district rules and union contracts.
In the renewal, Dawkins wants the ability to provide sign-on bonuses for teachers. The school day will remain about an hour longer than the district’s day, and the school will have the flexibility to lengthen the year in the future.
Manual is also in the process of with various grants.
The district is also planning a pilot program at Manual to give the community more data on a regular basis about how the school is doing. The point is to encourage engagement as well as give families advanced warning about a school’s failing status. DPS would probably transfer the idea to other troubled district schools.
On Thursday, just before school closed for winter break, Dawkins talked to students and staff about the need for collaboration.
“If Manual matters to you, we need to see you show that through your performance and through your efforts,” Dawkins said. “We’re trying to move out of turnaround, and so how do you help us do that?”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or @yeseniarobles
